Book Review: Fire From Heaven: The Rise Of Pentecostal Spirituality And The Reshaping Of Religion In The 21st Century

“The great temptation facing pentecostals today is to forget or to minimize the circumstances of their birth, to try to blend into the religious and social atmosphere around them. But, as I have noticed time and time again, when they blend in—as they frequently do—they inevitably lose their essence, perhaps one should even say their souls. They become just one more denomination, one more creed, a slightly noisier crowd of religious hucksters trying to outshout the others. When they deny their origins they also deprive themselves of a future. They relinquish their extraordinary capacity to dig into the spiritual treasures below the religious crust. They forfeit their promise of shaping a flourishing faith that, because it once proved it could live in this fallen age without being seduced by it, might still provide a thriving spirituality for the century to come.”

— Fire From Heaven: The Rise Of Pentecostal Spirituality And The Reshaping Of Religion In The 21st Century by Harvey Cox

Review: It should be noted that the book is dated (pre-21st century) and thus will not address the state of Pentecostalism over the last few decades. Having said that, I commend Cox for giving an honest and well-research presentation of Pentecostalism. He never took the plunge into Pentecostalism, but he was a fair and kindly friend.

Reading this book will give you a good grasp of the beginnings of late 19th – 20th Pentecostalism and some of his warning about Pentecostalism in the West being seduced by the desire to be mainstream and accepted at the expense of it’s power and distinctiveness are disturbingly accurate.

Cox takes the reader on a journey (that he took himself) around the world explaining the different nuances of Pentecostalism as it interacts with the local culture. His explanations were interesting but I kept waiting for the ultimate explanation – that ultimately the rise of Pentecostal Spirituality was an a divine act of God.

Regrettably it never seemed to occurred to Dr. Cox that that could have been the case. But then, he’s not alone. Time will tell.

As our Pentecostals pioneers would have put it: When the moon turns to blood and the skies darken and the Great Day of Lord doth come, then the Judge of all will return and clear all confusion and answer all questions.

I believe then, that those who embraced, what Dr. Cox called “Pentecostal Spirituality” will be among those on the right side of eternity and will have enjoyed the journey getting there a whole lot more than their more quiet and reserved brothers and sisters in the faith.

Photo by Ugur Peker on Unsplash